Books published by Mdpi AG

Electric power systems are headed for a true changing of the guard, due to the urgent need for achieving sustainable energy delivery. Fortunately, the development of new technologies is driving the transition of power systems toward a carbon-free paradigm while maintaining the current standards of quality, efficiency, and resilience. The introduction of HVDC and FACTS in the 20th century, taking advantage of dramatic improvements in power electronics and control, gave rise to unprecedented levels of flexibility and speed of response in comparison with traditional electromechanical devices. This flexibility is nowadays required more than ever in order to solve a puzzle with pieces that do not always fit perfectly. This Special Issue aims to address the role that FACTS and HVDC systems can play in helping electric power systems face the challenges of the near future.

The field of design and health, formerly known as the domain of healthcare design professionals, has now reached a turning point with the proliferation of a plethora of non-invasive wearable technologies, to provide the objective and near-real-time measurement of the impact of many features of the built environment on aspects of health, wellbeing and performance. In turn, new materials and the Internet of Things are allowing the development of smart buildings, which can interact with occupants to optimize their health, wellbeing, performance and overall experience. Companies that have previously focused on positioning themselves as "green" are now turning to positioning themselves in the marketplace as both green and healthy. This Special Issue will include articles that address new cutting edge technologies and materials at the interface between design and health, and review some of the latest findings related to studies which use these technologies. This SI will also suggest exciting future directions for the field. It will include articles which focus on the objective data gathered to document the effects of the built environment on health. Importantly, it will focus on the use of innovative methods of measurement, such as state-of-the-art wearable and environmental sensors, quantifying some aspects of health, such as stress and relaxation responses, activity, posture, sleep quality, cognitive performance and wellbeing outcomes. It will also examine the impacts of different elements of the built environment on these health and wellbeing outcomes. The published articles will focus on the design interventions informed by these measurements, along with innovative integrated building materials that can shape the design of built environments for better health, productivity, and performance. It will also address the return on investment (ROI) of such design interventions. This Special Issue will provide both the foundational knowledge and fundamentals for characterizing human health and wellbeing in the built environment, as well as the emerging trends and design methods for innovations in this field.

This Special Issue will deal with pathophysiological as well as the phenomenological signs of insomnia. For example, Is ''hyperarousal'' outdated? What is the difference between acute and chronic insomnia? What sleep disorders are linked to traumatic brain injuries? How is social facial recognition impacted by insomnia? What factors are linked to socioeconomic factors and alcohol consumption in the face of insomnia? We aim to set forward new thinking about insomnia research, including unchartered territories needing to be explored. Reviews, meta-analyses, and new experimental research are welcome in this Issue.

In recent years, technological breakthroughs have greatly enhanced our ability to understand the complex world of molecular biology. Rapid developments in genomic profiling techniques, such as high-throughput sequencing, have brought new opportunities and challenges to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. Furthermore, by combining genomic profiling techniques with other experimental techniques, many powerful approaches (e.g., RNA-Seq, Chips-Seq, single-cell assays, and Hi-C) have been developed in order to help explore complex biological systems. As a result of the increasing availability of genomic datasets, in terms of both volume and variety, the analysis of such data has become a critical challenge as well as a topic of great interest. Therefore, statistical methods that address the problems associated with these newly developed techniques are in high demand. This book includes a number of studies that highlight the state-of-the-art statistical methods for the analysis of genomic data and explore future directions for improvement.

Over the years, there has been increasing interest into the public health impact of cannabis use, especially by young adults. This follows the evidence of a growing prevalence of regular cannabis use worldwide, with approximately 200 million users. Recreational cannabis use, especially a frequent use of products with high levels of its main psychoactive ingredient delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ 9-THC), can cause dependence and have transient and long-lasting detrimental mental health effects, also negatively impacting cognitive processing and brain function and metabolism. In regular users, the development of tolerance to some of the effects of cannabis, especially the pleasurable ones, may lead to progressively heavier use in order to obtain the same effects in terms of their intensity, with higher health risks. However, the Cannabis Sativa plant contains different chemicals with different potential effects. In this regard, cannabidiol has gained interest because of its potential therapeutic properties, in line with evidence that CBD and Δ9-THC may exhibit opposite effects at the cannabinoid receptor type 1 (CB1), Δ9-THC being a partial agonist and CBD an antagonist/inverse agonist. Different cannabinoids may modulate human brain function and behavior in different ways, with different risk-benefit profiles.

Metabolic syndrome has been the topic of countless publications. It still remains a subject of debate and some experts have even questioned its clinical relevance. Its diagnosis is nevertheless predictive of an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease even in the absence of traditional risk factors. Many years ago, our team made the point that the most prevalent form of metabolic syndrome was linked to abdominal obesity, which can be found even among individuals who are not considered obese by body weight standards. Imaging techniques such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging have revealed the link between regional body fat partitioning and cardiometabolic risk. Visceral obesity is the most dangerous form of obesity, with subcutaneous obesity being associated with lower health risk. We have proposed that excess visceral fat may be a marker of subcutaneous adipose tissue dysfunction not being able to serve as a metabolic sink, causing lipid accumulation at undesired sites, a condition described as ectopic fat deposition. Among the effective approaches to prevent, delay, or manage metabolic syndrome, lifestyle changes are the key elements, with an emphasis on the importance of healthy global dietary patterns, regular physical activity, and adequate sleep quality.

Biomarkers are of critical medical importance for oncologists, allowing them to predict and detect disease and to determine the best course of action for cancer patient care. Prognostic markers are used to evaluate a patient''s outcome and cancer recurrence probability after initial interventions such as surgery or drug treatments and, hence, to select follow-up and further treatment strategies. On the other hand, predictive markers are increasingly being used to evaluate the probability of benefit from clinical intervention(s), driving personalized medicine. Evolving technologies and the increasing availability of "multiomics" data are leading to the selection of numerous potential biomarkers, based on DNA, RNA, miRNA, protein, and metabolic alterations within cancer cells or tumor microenvironment, that may be combined with clinical and pathological data to greatly improve the prediction of both cancer progression and therapeutic treatment responses. However, in recent years, few biomarkers have progressed from discovery to become validated tools to be used in clinical practice. This Special Issue comprises eight review articles and five original studies on novel potential prognostic and predictive markers for different cancer types.

This book includes papers published in the Special Issue titled "Coastal Dynamic and Evolution", which aimed to collect multidisciplinary studies that involved the evaluation of coastal evolution at different temporal scales, from hours and days to months and years, as well as historical changes. The volume contains investigations carried out by means of aerial photos and satellite images, as well as results from in situ surveys and observations aimed at assessing morphological changes in shoreline and dune systems as a consequence of chronic flooding and erosion processes or the occurrence of specific weather-related events. Studies on the evaluation of past and future sea-level variations and related impacts have also been included. In order to provide the reader with a wide overview of different coastal settings and methodological approaches, case studies from Russia, Italy, California (USA), Morocco, Spain, Indonesia, Ireland and Colombia have been included in this Special Issue. The content may be of interest to those who perform a wide range of investigations related to coastal analysis and management, especially to researchers and academics who can exploit the provided approaches and methodologies.

Alzheimer''s disease (AD) represents the most common form of dementia in the elderly population worldwide. AD is characterized by progressive neurodegeneration that leads to a gradual deterioration of memory and other cognitive functions. Given the global prevalence and impact of AD, there is a critical need to establish biomarkers that can be used to detect AD in individuals before the onset of clinical signs and provide mitigating therapeutics. The aim of this Special Issue is to discuss the current knowledge as well as future perspectives on the role of biomarkers in the screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of AD.

This book provides a detailed description of all kinds of therapeutic antibodies including IgGs, IgAs, IgEs, and IgMs, bispecific antibodies, chimeric antigen receptor antibodies, and antibody fragments. Details about how each of these antibodies interact with their ligands, the immune system, and their targets are provided. Additionally, this book delves into the details of antibody, Fc, and variable chain structures, and how subtle changes in structure, charge, flexibility, post-translational modification, and the ability to bind to natural antibody ligands can result in a significant impact on antibody activity and functionality. Finally, the book explains the critical quality attributes of modern therapeutic antibodies and how to ensure that antibodies entering development have the best possible chance of success.

The present book is devoted to all aspects of biosensing in a very broad definition, including, but not limited to, biomolecular composition used in biosensors (e.g., biocatalytic enzymes, DNAzymes, abiotic nanospecies with biocatalytic features, bioreceptors, DNA/RNA, aptasensors, etc.), physical signal transduction mechanisms (e.g., electrochemical, optical, magnetic, etc.), engineering of different biosensing platforms, operation of biosensors in vitro and in vivo (implantable or wearable devices), self-powered biosensors, etc. The biosensors can be represented with analogue devices measuring concentrations of analytes and binary devices operating in the YES/NO format, possibly with logical processing of input signals. Furthermore, the book is aimed at attracting young scientists and introducing them to the field, while providing newcomers with an enormous collection of literature references.

Refrigeration, air conditioning, and heat pumps (RACHP) have an important impact on the final energy uses of many sectors of modern society, such as residential, commercial, industrial, transport, and automotive.          Moreover, RACHP also have an important environmental impact due to the working fluids that deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, which are being phased out according to the Montreal Protocol (1989).                     Last, but not least, high global working potential (GWP), working fluids (directly), and energy consumption (indirectly) are responsible for a non-negligible quota of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere, thus impacting climate change.

In recent decades, new technologies have made remarkable progress in helping to understand biological systems. Rapid advances in genomic profiling techniques such as microarrays or high-performance sequencing have brought new opportunities and challenges in the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. Such genetic sequencing techniques allow large amounts of data to be produced, whose analysis and cross-integration could provide a complete view of organisms. As a result, it is necessary to develop new techniques and algorithms that carry out an analysis of these data with reliability and efficiency. This Special Issue collected the latest advances in the field of computational methods for the analysis of gene expression data, and, in particular, the modeling of biological processes. Here we present eleven works selected to be published in this Special Issue due to their interest, quality, and originality.

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) is a very attractive research field for metallic materials because it provides new possibilities for manufacturing nanostructured materials in large quantities and allows microstructural design on different hierarchical levels. The papers included in this issue address the following topics: novel SPD processes as well as recent advancements in established processing methods, microstructure evolution and grain refinement in single- and multi-phase alloys as well as composites, strategies to enhance the microstructure stability at elevated temperatures, mechanically driven phase transformations, surface nanostructuring, gradient and multilayered materials, and mechanical and physical properties of SPD-processed materials.

This book provides a collection of research and review articles useful for researchers, engineers, students and industry experts in the bioenergy field. The practical and valuable information can be utilized for developing and implementing renewable energy projects, selecting different waste feedstocks, technologies, and products. A detailed insight into advanced technologies such as hydrothermal liquefaction, torrefaction, and supercritical CO2 extraction for making sustainable biofuels and chemicals is provided. A case study on food waste-to-energy valorization processes in Latin America provides experts'' insights to promote a circular economy.

Green technologies can be identified as key components in Industry 4.0. The scope of this book is to address how conventional green technologies can be a part of smart industries by minimizing waste, maximizing productivity, optimizing the supply chain, or by additive manufacturing. This theme focuses on the scope and challenges of integrating current environmental technologies in future industries. This book, "Green Technologies: Bridging Conventional Practices and Industry 4.0", aims to incorporate and introduce the advances in green technologies to the cyber-based industries. It is hoped that the novel green technologies presented in this book are useful in assisting the global community in working towards fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals.

Medical centers are widely recognized as vital components of the healthcare system. However, academic medical centers are differentiated from their community counterparts by their mission, which typically focuses on clinical care, education, and research. Nonetheless, community clinics/hospitals fill a critical need and play a complementary role serving as the primary sites for health care in most communities. Furthermore, it is now increasingly recognized that in addition to physicians, physician-scientists, and other healthcare-related professionals, basic research scientists also contribute significantly to the emerging inter- and cross-disciplinary, team-oriented culture of translational science. Therefore, approaches that combine the knowledge, skills, experience, expertise, and visions of clinicians in academic medical centers and their affiliated community centers and hospitals, together with basic research scientists, are critical in shaping the emerging culture of translational research so that patients from the urban as well as suburban settings can avail the benefits of the latest developments in science and medicine. ''Integrating Clinical and Translational Research Networks-Building Team Medicine'' is an embodiment of this ethos at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. It includes a series of papers authored by teams of leading clinicians, basic research scientists, and translational researchers. The authors discuss how engaging and collaborating with community-based practices, where the majority of older patients with cancer receive their care, can ensure that these patients receive the highest-quality, evidence-based care. Based on our collective experience at City of Hope, we would like to stress that the success of academic-community collaborative programs not only depends on the goodwill and vision of the participants but also on the medical administration, academic leadership, and policymakers who define the principles and rules by which cooperation within the health care industry occurs. We trust that our experience embodied in this singular compendium will serve as a ''Rosetta Stone'' for other institutions and practitioners.

This book is a collection of papers for the Special Issue "Quantitative Methods for Economics and Finance" of the journal Mathematics. This Special Issue reflects on the latest developments in different fields of economics and finance where mathematics plays a significant role. The book gathers 19 papers on topics such as volatility clusters and volatility dynamic, forecasting, stocks, indexes, cryptocurrencies and commodities, trade agreements, the relationship between volume and price, trading strategies, efficiency, regression, utility models, fraud prediction, or intertemporal choice.

In this issue, psychometrics researchers were invited to make reanalyses or extensions of a previously published dataset from a recent paper by Myszkowski and Storme (2018). The dataset analyzed consisted of responses to a multiple-choice logical reasoning nonverbal test, comprising the last series of Raven''s (1941) Standard Progressive Matrices. Although the original paper already proposed several modeling strategies, this issue presents new or improved procedures to study the psychometrics properties of tests of this type.

The papers in this SI present valuable results in the topics of soils, sediments, and water contamination according to the consideration of ecological and health risk. They also point out open questions and possible avenues for future research. Biochar application can benefit both soil conservation and contamination, but further research should be conducted to investigate whether these positive effects can be extended to the field scale. Similar to biochar, scale-up design will be helpful for thin-layer capping in in situ sediments using mixed active amendments. Both physiochemical analysis and bioassays mutually supported the evaluation results of river water quality. However, we need better approaches and policies for management to prevent further contamination from the discharge of untreated industrial and domestic waste into this aquatic ecosystem. The use of microorganisms to eliminate antibiotics is a promising strategy, but future work should verify the biodegradation ability of antibiotic-degrading bacteria in wastewater treatment plants.

The interaction of bacteria with biomaterials'' surfaces has critical clinical implications on the development and progression of biofilm-related diseases. In this book "Bacterial Interactions with Dental and Medical Materials", encouraging findings on tissue-contacting biomaterials to control biofilms, enhanced understanding of key mechanisms, and clinical perspectives are discussed toward improving healthcare.

This special issue provides a current snapshot of recent advances and ongoing challenges in the development of titanium alloys for biomedical implants and devices. Titanium offers significant advantages over other materials including higher strength and better biocompatibility. This issue highlights current trends and recent developments, including the uptake of additive manufacturing (3D printing), and approaches to improve processing and performance of titanium alloys for medical applications.

This Special Issue is dedicated to neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs), a category of malignancy that demonstrates wide clinical heterogeneity, posing major challenges in diagnosis and management. There have been significant advances in the field of NEN genomics, pathology, imaging, and treatment over the past five years. NENs are examples of rare tumours (although their incidence and prevalence are increasing) where international collaborative efforts have allowed the generation of high-level evidence to guide optimal patient-centred care. This issue presents both reviews and original papers to provide comprehensive state-of-the-art understanding of this fascinating disease.

This book presents recent research results related to various applications of computer vision methods in the widely understood contexts of automation and robotics. As the current progress of image analysis applications may be easily observed in various areas of everyday life, it becomes one of the most essential elements of development of Industry 4.0 solutions. Some of the examples, partially discussed in individual chapters, may be related to the visual navigation of mobile robots and drones, monitoring of industrial production lines, non-destructive evaluation and testing, monitoring of the IoT devices or the 3D printing process and the quality assessment of manufactured objects, video surveillance systems, and decision support in autonomous vehicles.

In January 2020, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), The Food Trust, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Healthy Eating Research (HER) met for a Healthy Retail Research Convention in Washington, D.C. Attendees included food industry representatives, researchers, and nonprofit organizations. The objective of the convention was to develop a national healthy retail research agenda by (1) determining the effectiveness of government policies, corporate practices, and in-store pilots in promoting healthy eating; (2) identifying gaps in the healthy food retail literature and generating questions for future research, with an intentional focus on reducing health disparities and improving equity; (3) highlighting best practices for partnering with retailers and food manufacturers on healthy retail research; (4) facilitating relationships between retailers and researchers to implement and evaluate retail interventions; and (5) identifying existing datasets, ongoing work, and new opportunities for retail-research partnerships.

The ability to exploit the potential of wild relatives carrying beneficial traits is a major goal in breeding programs. However, it relies on the possibility of the chromosomes from the crop and wild species in interspecific crosses to recognize, associate, and undergo crossover formation during meiosis, the cellular process responsible for producing gametes with half the genetic content of their parent cells. Unfortunately, in most cases, a barrier exists preventing successful hybridization between the wild and crop chromosomes. Understanding the mechanisms controlling chromosome associations during meiosis are of great interest in plant breeding and will allow chromosome manipulation to introduce genetic variability from related species into a crop. In addition to interspecific hybrids, other materials, such as natural and synthetic polyploids and introgression lines derived from allopolyploids, among others, are powerful tools in the framework of plant breeding. For example, an extra pair of alien chromosomes in the full genome complement of a crop species has been frequently used as a first step to access genetic variation from the secondary gene pool in breeding programs. In addition, such introgression lines are also pivotal in the study of interspecific genetic interactions, in the chromosomal location of genetic markers, and in the study of chromosome structure and behavior in somatic and meiotic cells. Contained in this Special Issue are accounts of original research, including new tools to identify chromosome introgressions and the development and characterization of introgression lines and interspecific hybrids carrying desirable agronomic traits for plant breeding purposes. Also included are reviews about the chromosome engineering of tropical cash crops and the effect of chromosome structure on chromosome associations and recombination during meiosis to allow chromosome manipulation in the framework of plant breeding.

Nutritional epidemiology examines dietary or nutritional factors in relation to the occurrence of disease in various populations. It is a fact that substantial progress has been made in recent years in nutritional epidemiology. Compared to the practice during the 1990s, and with the improvements in data analytics, several new approaches are gaining ground. Results from a variety of large-scale studies in the field of nutrition epidemiology have substantially contributed toward the evidence used in guiding dietary recommendations for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, metabolic disorders, some types of cancer, and other morbidities. In this Special Issue, we would like to bring readers closer to the state-of-the-art in the field by gathering papers covering different aspects of nutrition epidemiology from population-based observational studies. Topics of the submitted articles may, but not necessarily, include eating habits of various populations, especially of those not well-studied, such as in Africa, Oceania, South Americas, immigrants, minorities, as well as a variety of associations between nutrients/foods/food patterns and chronic diseases, like cardiovascular, diabetes, obesity, cancer, etc., and gene-nutrient and epigenome-nutrient interactions related to human health at all ages.

This Special Issue is a collection of research articles focused on the production and role of nitric oxide in plants. Nitric oxide is a crucial molecule used in the orchestration of cellular events in animals and plants. With a mixture of primary research papers and review articles written by some of the top researchers in the field, this work encompasses many aspects of this important and growing area of biochemistry.